Andy Murray lifted his first career Masters title, defeating Novak Djokovic for the second time in as many weeks to claim a 7-6 (7/4), 7-6 (7/5) win at the Cincinnati event on Sunday.
The Scot, who rose to a career-best sixth in the world yesterday, had to work for the victory as Djokovic mounted a closing surge.
Murray eventually won in the second tiebreaker after 2 hours, 22 minutes.
PHOTO: AFP
He notched his second victory over the world No. 3 after losing his first four meetings until last week’s Toronto quarter-final success.
The Scot clocked the first British success at a Masters event since Tim Henman won Paris Bercy five years ago. Henman also lost the Cincinnati final eight years ago to Swede Thomas Enqvist.
Murray travels to the Beijing Olympics with a renewed conviction in his game.
PHOTO: AFP
“I’m taking a lot of confidence from this win, you expect to get that after winning your first big tournament,” said Murray, now with three trophies this season.
Djokovic saved four match points late in the second set as Murray served for victory leading a set and 5-3 after breaking the Serb.
But after his mis-fires, Murray found himself down a break point, which Djokovic converted after five deuces to climb to 4-5.
The Serb, who had beaten Rafael Nadal with a sterling performance the night before, was unable to come good against the determined Murray.
“It’s different when you play against an opponent who plays a similar game with you,” Djokovic said. “He was making me do a lot unforced errors. He was playing a lot of slice and changing pace to my forehand. I just lost the rhythm today. I had a great match last night, I played rocket tennis, but that was not possible against Andy today. We’ve known each other since we were 13 or 14. We used to watch these kind of matches on television and now we are playing them.”
Murray said that playing all week in the heat was crucial to his chances on a another sunny afternoon.
“It was really hot, but I’ve played all of my matches in these conditions,” said Murray, 35-12 this season. “But by the end we were both tired, it was really getting to us.”
Djokovic was unable to make an impression in the end after striking 46 unforced errors.
Murray was the third Briton to reach the final in Cincinnati after Henman and Mark Cox in 1977.
“I really struggled against him in the past,” Murray said of Djokovic. “I had to change something. I played a bit more aggressive and served a little bit smarter than I had in the past and obviously it worked. It’s huge to win your first sort of major tournament and to do it in a match like today makes it more special.”
■ROGERS CUP
AFP, MONTREAL
Russia’s Dinara Safina steamrolled Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-2, 6-1 to capture the WTA Rogers Cup for her third title in her last six events on Sunday.
Safina, who is enjoying one of the most productive runs of her career, needed just 1 hour, 8 minutes to beat unseeded Cibulkova at the Uniprix Stadium court. The 22-year-old Safina also won last week in the Williams sisters’ backyard of Carson in south central Los Angeles. This was her fifth championship match in six events.
“It’s the first time in my life I have won tournaments back-to-back,” Safina said. “Usually I would win a tournament and the next week I would lose in the first round.”
Safina blasted eight aces, while teenager Cibulkova had just one and committed six double faults.
“I was happy when I won the first match and then I was just taking it one match at a time,” Safina said.
Safina came out with plenty of spark, breaking Cibulkova at the first opportunity to seize a 3-0 lead. She also roared to a 4-0 in the final set. She has 28 wins and just three losses in the past three months. During that stretch she defeated nine players ranked in the top 10.
It was the eighth career title for Safina, who collected US$196,000 in first place prize money. She reached her first grand slam final at this year’s French Open, losing to world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic.
Cibulkova, who was in just her second career final, had been a giant-killer this week, upsetting world No. 2 Jelena Jankovic, sixth-ranked Elena Dementieva and No. 12 seed Nadia Petrova.
“I was pretty nervous in my first big final and I wished to play better,” Cibulkova said. “I’m kind of upset with how I played in the final. I wanted to have a good match against Dinara. But I think she played really well. I hope in my next final I will play better.”
■NORDIC LIGHT OPEN
AFP, STOCKHOLM
Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki took her first ever WTA title on Sunday when she clobbered Russia’s Vera Dushevina in the final of the US$145,000 Nordic Light Open.
The 18-year-old Dane, seeded fourth, completely dominated the game, winning through 6-0, 6-2, after earlier ousting top seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the semi-final.
Wozniacki told Danish news agency Ritzau: “Winning in Stockholm is completely perfect. I feel at home and the spectators were rooting for me.”
Wozniacki reached her first ever international final when she earlier beat Radwanska 6-4, 6-1 in a semi-final delayed from Saturday because of rain.
In the other semi-final of the day, unseeded Dushevina easily beat Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik, seeded third, 6-1, 6-2. It was the second win in a week for Wozniacki over Dushevina after the Dane beat the Russian 6-0, 6-1 in last week’s quarter-final in Portoroz, Slovenia.
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Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
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